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Auburn's Rhett Lashlee: 'We feel good about foundation'

Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall talks to Tigers offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee during the 2014 Iron Bowl. Lashlee has reportedly interviewed this week for the head coach opening at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.(Photo: ALBERT CESARE/ADVERTISER)

MONTGOMERY – With Gus Malzahn still being on a plane from a recruiting trip, Auburn turned to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee had to play the role of emergency fill in at the Alabama Football Coaches Association Convention.

The Auburn head coach and new Tigers defensive coordinator Kevin Steele were unable to attend the event in Montgomery due to a recruiting flight into Atlanta being unable to land at the scheduled time. Lashlee, who played for Malzahn in high school at Shiloh Christian School in Springdale, Arkansas and has coached on his staff throughout Malzahn’s college coaching career, was needed Thursday night to take over Auburn’s presentation that included play-action counter philosophies, zone-read concepts and a modified state of the program speech at the end.

“What Coach (Malzahn) has been really talking about is we’ve had some struggles, it was our third year but we’re finally starting to see consecutive recruiting classes work together,” Lashlee said Thursday night. “The one thing we feel good about is the foundation.”

After having easily the worst offensive production year of his three-year tenure at Auburn, Malzahn admitted last month that his staff needed to its own evaluations before starting the upcoming spring practices.

“I fully understand we didn't do well offensively,” Malzahn said on Dec. 14. “I totally get it. I've had time not just in the last week, but during the season to look at it. We're going to get better and we're going to improve. We're committed to doing that.”

Lashlee pointed to 19 freshmen being on the field at one point during the 2015 season that caused the regression to a 7-6 campaign that ended with a 31-10 victory over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl.

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said in August he believes offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee will soon be a head coach at a FBS program.(Photo: Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics)

With six days left before national signing day on Feb. 3, Lashlee stressed a major core area of Auburn’s recruiting base was already being developed by the high school coaches in the ballroom of the Montgomery Embassy Suites Thursday night.

“Right now over the past three years we’ve signed 27 in-state players,” Lashlee said to approximately 100 in-state high school coaches in attendance. “We’ll go outside of Alabama, Georgia and Florida for a quarterback or a great player if we have a chance but to be honest with you, if our roster is full of players from those three areas, Auburn has always been good.”

Lashlee said Auburn’s spring practice session will run from March 1 to the Tigers spring A-Day game at Jordan-Hare Stadium on April 9 and the Auburn coaches clinic will be April 1-3 where guest speakers will be SMU head coach Chad Morris and Arizona State head coach Todd Graham. Lashlee said Malzahn, who was selected to the Arkansas High School Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 2013, wanted specifically to bring in two former high school coaches that are now Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches.

“We both know what you all know and that’s there is just as good coaches sitting in this room out here than up here speaking tonight but it’s all about getting that opportunity,” Lashlee said.